DI Mick Palmer, sole member of the Heritage Crime Unit, is dispatched to the Astleigh House in Yorkshire, where art historian Francis Crozier has been murdered.
Mick and Shazia investigate the discovery of a Viking hoard after a museum curator is suspicious about the circumstances and summons Mick for a second opinion.
After wine critic and connoisseur Raymond Bettane collapses and dies during a tasting, Mick and Shazia find a broken champagne flute and a crushed glass vial.
A multimillionaire philanthropist plans to donate his collection of Titanic memorabilia to the Ulster Maritime Museum, but is discovered dead before the press launch.